As is well known in the gas turbine engine art, integrally cast stator vanes and shrouds are inherently not capable of providing damping. In the interest of reducing cost in a gas turbine engine, it is desirable to utilize cast parts whenever and wherever practical. The compressor stators and particularly the stators used on the high pressure compressor have proven to be likely candidates where cast parts can be utilized. However, as was mentioned in the above, because cast stator vanes and shrouds inherently do not have damping capabilities in comparison with other similar fabricated designs, the lack of damping has been a major obstacle standing in the way of utilizing cast parts.
As is obvious to one skilled in this art and well known in this industry, damping is essential. Damping is not only necessary to withstand the exceedingly high vibratory stresses incidental in aircraft operation, it must also keep the parts out of resonance to assure their adequate life. It is therefore imperative that damping be incorporated in cast parts in order to attain the desired structural integrity needed in this environment.
Another obstacle that faces the designer of aircraft engine hardware is the limited available space for incorporating dampers. Obviously, commercially available dampers are non-existent and hence unavailable. To this end, this invention contemplates a mechanical spring-like damper that is capable of providing sufficient loading required for damping the vibratory energy existing in this hostile environment and being sufficiently small to be able to fit into the limited space of the available envelope of a high pressure compressor stator of a gas turbine engine.